ADDING DCC TO A RIVAROSSI SWITCHER by Jerry Hansz

Here we go again! I had a Rivarossi 0-8-0 switcher that began

to run "squirrely". I opened it up, and found the forward chassis

contact was on the verge of breaking apart. It lay in the pending

box for a coupla months.

A flash-why not convert it to DCC? With the multimeter and

the test power, I discovered the electrical layout. The

manufacturer's specs said it was rated for 12VDC at 0.4A

maximum. There would be room in the firebox for a z-scale

DCC decoder.

So, I acquired a Digitrax DZ143PS decoder (the DZ143 would

work, but the PS was on sale). Diagonal cutters made short

work of the 8-pin plug.

In the next photo, note that a black wire is connected from a

forward chassis contact to the right-hand motor contact and to

the tender drawbar. This turns out to be the left-side pickup.

The left-hand motor contact is connected the motor shell. This

is the right-side pickup. With DC power plus to the left-hand

contact, and minus to the right-hand contact, the locomotive

moves forward. Great! Should be a piece of cake.

Turns out the forward contact broke off with very little hand

pressure. I re-soldered it to the remaining contact. The wire

was unsoldered from the right-hand motor contact, and soldered

to the DZ143PS black wire. I separated the left-hand contact

from the motor shell, and soldered the DZ143PS red wire to the

motor shell.

0-8-0 CHASSIS TOP VIEW

I then soldered the DZ143PS gray wire to the right-hand motor

contact, and the orange wire to the left-hand motor contact. I

decided not the use the locomotive lights, so all other wires were

trimmed and taped to the DZ143PS.

Would it all fit? Yep! The decoder slipped easily into the upper

firebox. The rear tabs were inserted into the locomotive shell,

and the shell pressed down nicely to the cylinder block. !!! what

happened to the front mounting screw? The smoke box front

was in the box, but no screw! I scrambled through the junk on

the bench, no luck!

Finally found a screw from the junk box that would fit, and it all

came together. Picked up the smoke box front, and the screw

fell out! Wow! It now resides in the junk box. Snapped the

smoke box front on, and - onward.

Now, would it work? Set up on the programming track,

programmed for long address 2556, normal forward, DCC &

DC running. On the main track she runs forward and reverse

nicely. I ran her down to the engine terminal and parked her on

track one. Success!

I needed another locomotive on the Oidar Branch, so 2556 was

the candidate. She ran down from Unter-Talheim, and is parked

by the engine crew shack.

The following Autosketch drawing shows how the wiring was

modified for DCC.